Admiral Thomas Mathews
by ARNULPHY, Claude, Oil on canvas, 127 x 102 cm
This is one of four surviving portraits Arnulphy painted of officers of a Royal Navy fleet lying off Toulon between 1742 and 1744.
Thomas Mathews (1676-1751) was a British officer of the Royal Navy, who rose to the rank of admiral. Arnulphy painted this portrait while Vice-Admiral of the Red and Commander-in-Chief of the English Mediterranean fleet, 1742-44. In the background is Hy�res Bay, Toulon.